Specifically, anyone with large notes files, if the entire notes file came over, or they lost data.

I asked several people with large data bases if they had problems when they converted.

I evaluated several software packages, but it came down to two, Legacy and its competitor, RootsMagic. We went on to become and remain very close friends. I just remember wondering if our unknown “cousinhood” was the reason we got along so well. I mean, you never know when you’re going to need to refer to your genealogy! If you think I’m kidding, I met one my closest cousins, Kathy, at a client site about 15 years ago (how can it have been that long?) completely by accident and yes, we compared our family trees on my laptop. Recently, I had a forced upgrade to Window 10 with the purchase of a new laptop, and I need my genealogy on my laptop.

So, I’ve used it for the past 2+ years unsupported, but I know full well that with the advent of new operating systems, one day it’s not going to work anymore and I surely don’t want to have a crisis and have to adapt on top of a crisis situation. To me, software is only a tool and the tool I had was fine. I didn’t want to have to take the time to evaluate and learn anything else.

When the Mormon Church discontinued support for PAF in 2013, I was greatly saddened, not because the software had been free and I was now going to have to purchase software, but because I knew that software so well and was so comfortable using it. I later discovered I should have been using source fields and such, but I’m not even sure there was a source field initially. I probably didn’t use it exactly correctly, because I typed everything into the notes field which was, thankfully, of unlimited size.

It allowed me to organize my information.

I worked in the computer industry and they wanted to see how this new-fangled computer software thing worked. When I first installed PAF back in the 1980s on my old CPM machine, everyone at the local Family History Center was cautiously curious.

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